Schönfeld's aristocratic archive

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The Schönfeld aristocratic archive was an extensive collection based in Vienna , consisting of documents , manuscripts as well as genealogical and heraldic printed works on the Bohemian and Austrian, but also German and occasionally French, Dutch and Italian nobility .

history

The Prague stable master Johann Anton Schönfeld (1695–1773) had collected manuscripts and documents on the nobility for about 30 years. These included allegedly part of the estate of George Rüxner , the author of the first published in 1530 Thurnierbuches . After his death, this first aristocratic archive passed to his son Johann Ferdinand Ritter von Schönfeld (1750–1821), who, as a wealthy entrepreneur, was able to significantly expand the collection. He acquired the bequests or archives of the district chief Karl Joseph Biener von Bienenberg , the Prague archivist Johann Josef Klauser , the archivist of the Prague women's monastery Peter Hebenstreit von Streitenfeld, the historian Johann Karl Rohn, the lawyer and collector of old manuscripts Peter Tobias Ritter von Wokaun, des Land table registrar Michael Wenzel Preißler, the land table registrar and genealogist Johann Mayer von Mayern and the coat of arms inspectors Leonhard Lorenz Dominik Freiherr Hentschel von Gutschdorf and Vinzenz Ignatz Ritter von Seidl. In addition, he bought books and manuscripts from dissolved monasteries and was then busy with development work for several years. In 1806 Schönfeld applied for the post of imperial coat of arms inspector and announced that he would leave his archives to the state when he took office. Although his services in collecting aristocratic archives were recognized , he was ultimately denied his suitability for this office. Therefore, at the beginning of 1812, he opened his private genealogical-heraldic aristocratic archives in Vienna in Preßgasse (then land register number 488, later Sterngasse no.6), on the second floor, and later in Wollzeile (land register number 857, later house number 24). He published several name indexes for his collection and in 1812 published the first volume of materials on the diplomatic history of the nobility in the Austrian imperial state .

After his death, the aristocratic archives were taken over by his son Ignaz Ritter von Schönfeld (1778–1839), who also lived in the Wollzeile (land register number 779, later house number 19, and then 861, later house number 16). He intended to publish an Austrian nobility lexicon in several volumes on the basis of the aristocratic archives, as well as an annual nobility scheme. Only two volumes from the series Adelsschematismus des Österreichisches Kaiserstaates were published in 1824 and 1825 , which, at a unit price of three thalers, did not find enough buyers. In addition, the whole company received no support from the court chancellery , which was planning the establishment of a state aristocratic archive or a heraldry itself .

With a contract dated August 22, 1825, Schönfeld sold the aristocratic archives for 30,000 guilders to the Viennese notary Johann August Walcha, who initially paid 4,700 guilders for it and immediately commissioned Johann Wschetezka to organize the collection. In the meantime, Walcha noticed that after the inventory some valuable works were missing. Allegedly this was acquired by the Viennese genealogist Josef Ritter von Kronenfels. When the kk censorship authority forbade the application of the planned third volume, Walcha threatened with a lawsuit and Schönfeld had to take the archive back again, unsuccessfully offered it to the court chancellery for sale in 1831 and finally kept it until his death (November 11, 1839 ). As a rather hapless entrepreneur, he left a lot of debts to his wife. Susanne von Schönfeld, née Countess von Logothetti , therefore decided to close the aristocratic archives in 1840 and commissioned the Viennese book appraiser Matthäus Kuppitsch to auction it off.

content

At the auction, which took place between November 9th and 17th, 1840, around 2000 books and almost 200 manuscripts were auctioned. The Schönfeld aristocratic archives consisted of nobility and coat of arms diplomas , pen letters with elaborated family trees , certificates of goods, wills, baptism, marriage and burial certificates, copies of epitaphs , family books , state calendars , family coins , a portrait collection as well as an almost complete collection of all important printed works on genealogy, Heraldry and diplomacy . The whole thing was made accessible through several repertories in alphabetical and chronological order. Three of them were published by Johann Ferdinand von Schönfeld:

  • First alphabet of the old family documents, which can be found in Ritter v. Schönfeld's Viennese aristocratic archive are located. From the rural nobility and their relatives in Upper and Lower Austria . Prague 1818 (reprint: Trier 2005).
  • Second alphabet of the family documents, which can be found in Ritter v. Schönfeld's family archives are located in Vienna (French and Dutch families) . Prague 1818.
  • General catalog of the first 6000 family names, their coats of arms and coats of arms, which the famous archivist Joseph Klauser of Prague from all majestic coats of arms letters, documents and registers of coats of arms, dedications, graves, churches and altars, then of bells, prayer chairs, windows and doors through more than 30 Has collected for years . Prague 1818 ( google.de ).

Some of the three indices were also published between April 20, 1817 and March 16, 1820 in the Imperial and Royal Prager Zeitung.

Whereabouts

So far, the fate of only a few individual pieces from the extensive collection has been proven. Genealogical notes in two volumes (Baals – Blyz and Bobrowski – Bytek, with drawings and copperplate engravings, altogether 1666 pages) are now in the Princely Festetics Library (Helikon Library) in Keszthely . The Viennese writer Moritz Bermann (1823–1895) owned several biographical and genealogical manuscripts from the archive. The library of the Central Office for Genealogy (State Archive Leipzig) has a coat of arms from the von Schönfeld aristocratic archive.

literature

  • Schönfeld's genealogical-heraldic aristocratic archive in Vienna . In: Archives for Geography, History, State and War Art . tape 2 . Vienna 1811, p. 637-639 ( google.de ).
  • Schönfeld's genealogical-heraldic aristocratic archive in Vienna . In: Archives for Geography, History, State and War Art . tape 3 . Vienna 1812, p. 381-382 ( google.de ).
  • The Schönfeld aristocratic archive . In: Archives for History, Statistics, Literature and Art . tape 14 . Vienna 1823, p. 88-90 ( google.de ).
  • Franz Heinrich Böckh (Ed.): Oddities of the capital and residence city of Vienna and its immediate surroundings. 1st part . Vienna 1823, p. 215-217 ( google.de ).
  • Directory of a very valuable collection of books and manuscripts which is known under the name: Ritter von Schönfelds heraldic-genealogical aristocratic archive, consisting of the history of all countries, especially regarding Bohemia, old chronicles, heraldic-genealogical-diplomatic works [... ] Vienna 1840 ( google.de ).
  • Walter Goldinger : The former aristocratic archive . In: Communications from the Austrian State Archives . No. 13 , 1960, p. 486-502 ( hungaricana, hu ).
  • Rudolf Granichstädten-Czerva: About the Schönfeld aristocratic archive in Vienna . In: Adler. Journal of Genealogy and Heraldry . No. 3 , 1953, pp. 298-299 .
  • Ignaz von Schönfeld (Hrsg.): Schematismus of the nobility of the Austrian imperial state . tape 1 . Vienna 1824 ( onb.ac.at ).
  • Ignaz von Schönfeld (Hrsg.): Schematismus of the nobility of the Austrian imperial state . tape 2 . Vienna 1825 ( onb.ac.at ).
  • Johann Ferdinand von Schönfeld (Ed.): Materials on the diplomatic history of the nobility in the Austrian imperial state . Prague 1812 ( google.de ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goldinger, pp. 491-493
  2. ↑ Béla Jvány: German or Germany manuscripts in question in the princely Festeticsschen library in Keßthely . In: Familiengeschichtliche Blätter . tape 40 , 1942, Sp. 183-194 . ; Béla Jvány: Manuscripts relating to German or Germany in the Princely Festetics Library in Keßthely . In: Familiengeschichtliche Blätter . tape 41 , 1943, Sp. 17-24, 65-72, 93-110 .
  3. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach: Biographical Lexicon of the Kaiserthums Oesterreich . tape 1 . Vienna 1856, p. 322-323 ( literature.at ).

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